Tales from Division 148: A RED Experiment
by Mags-12998
Summary: Tired of losing, RED decides to make a team of 18 for the defense of Thunder Mountain. OCs ahoy.
1. Prologue: Executive Orders

The RED Teams Manager sighed and reviewed the statistics once again, hoping that he'd missed something. He hadn't, and the numbers hadn't magically changed; RED was still losing, badly. And almost everywhere, too.

"This is _not_ good," he said to himself. "We _can't_ lose to BLU, we just can't!" But RED had been on the defensive since… since, well, before he got here. And that _couldn't_ be good.

He pulled out a folder at random from the box and looked at the label: _Team Reports_. He opened it; inside were short reports about team members from the teams themselves.

The Teams Manager read almost every report in the file that night, a plan gradually forming in his mind. The problem with RED was that the teams were just slapped together in what was called a 'Highlander' formation—one person of each class. This left little room for complex strategies, and meant that some people were doing much too much work—the Engineers and the Medics mostly.

RED would need to hire some new people, and fire some old people, and scramble them all up, but it might just turn the tables on BLU. An 18-man team, configured specifically for defense, would be an interesting—and perhaps successful—experiment…


	2. Chapter 1: Meet the Team

As the train slowly slid to a halt next to one of RED's many railway junctions, a Sniper stood up and stretched before stepping out of his train compartment and into the aisle. As far as he knew, he was the only one on this train, but then again he hadn't left his compartment—he hadn't had any need to, either, and with RED it was better to play it safe.

As the Sniper walked to the front of the train, he noticed a young man in a hardhat and overalls sitting in another of the compartments, staring blankly out of the window. _He's going to miss the stop if he doesn't pay attention_, the Sniper thought. _I suppose I'd better let him know._

The Sniper tapped on the glass door and, when the man failed to respond, he opened the door. "Uh, 'scuse me…"

The man started and turned around, looking rather confused.

"You're gonna miss the stop if you wait any longer."

"Right. Why am I… _Riiiiight_. Sorry about that. Well, I suppose we've gotta get goin'."

As the two walked to the train's exit, the man continued, "Thanks a lot, pardner. I'm J—er, Engineer, I suppose."

"Sniper. Nice to meet you," the Sniper said with a polite nod.

"Likewise."

As the Sniper stepped off the train, the heat hit him like a ton of bricks. It was as hot as an oven out here! …At least, it was far hotter than his native Seattle.

There were about a half-dozen other REDs sitting on the various benches in the station. The Sniper counted them up; there were seven other REDs.

The Engineer from the train sat down and promptly went back to staring into space, though this time he pulled out a small notepad and occasionally scribbled something on it. The Sniper shrugged and sat down at an unoccupied bench, pulling out a book from his backpack and starting to read.

No one talked to each other, out of a sense of privacy or perhaps secrecy, and over the course of half an hour more REDs gathered at the station. There were eighteen (the Sniper had been counting) people at the station when another train pulled up and the previously unused loudspeakers came on with a slightly scratchy whine. "ALL MEMBERS OF DIVISION 148 ARE TO BOARD THE TRAIN," a very loud and possibly feminine voice said.

The Sniper stood. _Division 148's the one I'm in, right? Yeah._ Everyone else at the station stood as well (except for the Engineer from the train, who was brought back to attention by a poke from another RED, a young one in a t-shirt and slightly baggy pants).

As soon as everyone was on the train, it started up, heading for who-knows-where, with no announcement as to where or anything. _RED certainly likes to keep everyone in the dark_, the Sniper thought.

All of Division 148 was seated in one train car, and the Sniper couldn't help but notice that there were often multiple people who dressed the exact same way. RED had asked him (well, really, ordered him) to wear the shirt and vest, but there were two other REDs with almost the exact same shirt and vest—one of whom was an albino, the Sniper noted.

A RED wearing the exact same thing as the Engineer from the train cleared his throat. "Well, this is an interesting team," he said. "We're not gonna be able to just go by class names anymore. So first names, I suppose, class for the new guys, and what base you're from. Sound okay?"

There were some shrugs and noncommittal murmurs. "All rightey then. I'm Wilson, Engineer, from Viaduct."

The young guy in the t-shirt spoke up. "I'm Mike, Scout, from 2fort."

"Travis, Demoman. I'm with th' lad."

"Tom, Medic, from Nucleus."

"Alexei, Heavy, just hired."

"Sébastien, Spy, Egypt."

"Sam, Engineer, just hired."

"Eric, Engineer, just hired."

The Sniper got a good look at Sam and Eric; they looked remarkably similar. "Cole, Sniper, just hired," he said.

"Marcell, Medic, Dustbowl."

"Carlos, Spy, also from Dustbowl."

"Hartmann, Sniper, just hired," the albino Cole had noticed earlier said.

"Roger, Sniper, from Granary." Roger pointed to a person clad in what appeared to be a fireproof suit. "Oh an' this is Kelly, a Pyro. He's pretty hard t' understand sometimes."

Kelly nodded and said something that Cole interpreted to be 'Hello', or possibly 'Hair gel'… it was probably the former.

"Stanimir, Heavy, Coldfront."

"Sancho, Medic, Pipeline."

"Ryy, Phhro, jsst hrrd," another suited RED said.

"Ray?" Wilson asked.

"Ryy," the Pyro clarified rather unhelpfully.

"…Roy?"

"Mhmm," Roy said, nodding.

Everyone turned to look at the Engineer from the train, who was staring up blankly at the ceiling. Mike rolled his eyes and punched him in the shoulder. "Name, class, an' where y'from," he said.

"John, Engineer, and, uh, this's my first job with RED. …Wait, were you guys all doing that?"

There were a few sighs, eyes rolled, and mutters of 'idiot', but everyone repeated their name (though Wilson introduced Roy).

After that, everyone pretty much went back to doing what they did at the station. After about half an hour of that, loudspeakers came on with an almost unnoticeable crackle. "THIS TRAIN WILL ARRIVE AT THUNDER MOUNTAIN BASE AT 1400 HOURS. YOU WILL RECEIVE FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS UPON ARRIVAL." Cole was pretty sure it was the same voice as the one at the station.

Roger looked at his watch. "That's in fifteen minutes," he announced.

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, the train came to an abrupt halt, throwing most of the REDs inside to the floor. After the resulting string of multilingual swears came to an end, the voice in the loudspeakers came again. "ALL RIGHT, GET UP. ALSO, WELCOME TO THE RED THUNDER MOUNTAIN BASE. TAKE YOUR BELONGINGS AND ENTER THE BASE FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."

With only minimal grumbling, RED Division 148 grabbed their bags and left the train for their new base.


End file.
